COUSHATTA, Louisiana – C&C Forest Products announced it is investing over $21 million to rebuild its Coushatta sawmill following a 2025 fire, repositioning the facility as a more efficient, cost-competitive specialty lumber and timber operation. The company is expected to create 77 direct new jobs… while retaining 27 current positions. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the project will result in an additional 256 indirect new jobs, for a total of 333 potential new job opportunities in the Northwest Region. …The project will reconfigure the existing facility at 306 Wilkinson St. with updated equipment and improved site layout to support more efficient production. Once complete, the rebuilt sawmill will focus on specialty lumber and timbers and will be capable of producing up to 90 million board feet annually. …C&C Forest Products operates sawmills in Louisiana and Arkansas.
GOODLAND TOWNSHIP, Michigan – Firefighters were on scene for roughly 10 hours working to put out a l
JASPER County, Georgia — Firemen from the Jasper, Tri-Community, Beech Grove, East End Fire, Lake Rayburn and Angelina Fire Departments have all converged on the Lincoln Lumber Mill where a fire in the kiln has sent thick smoke into the air that can be seen for miles. No injuries have been reported. Mike Lout with our media partner KJAS reports the fire broke out this morning at the mill off Highway 96, just south of Jasper. First responders say the fire broke out in the dryer house or kiln of the operation. Firemen have so far been able to limit the fire to the drying house. However, flames and smoke are filling the building and firemen are continuing to pump water into the structure.
WAYNE, Pennsylvania — Saothair Capital Partners, a private equity firm, announced it has completed the acquisition of EAM Corp. from Domtar through a newly-formed affiliate. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Jesup, Georgia, EAM is a manufacturer of nonwoven airlaid and laminated absorbent materials used in feminine hygiene, adult incontinence, baby diaper, medical, industrial and food packaging applications. …Following the acquisition, current EAM General Manager Vanecia Carr will serve as Chief Executive Officer and Lori Venn will serve as Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing.
KINGSPORT, Tennessee — Domtar Paper has filed a response to 
WASHINGTON, Georgia — A sawmill that once stood as the largest east of the Mississippi River in the 1990s has reopened, offering relief to Georgia’s timber industry as it struggles with mill closures, Hurricane Helene damage and recent wildfires. Wilkes Lumber has brought the old mill back online in Washington, a small mill town surrounded by endless pines along Highway 78. The facility is already operating in phase one with about 50 workers, with more hiring expected as phase two comes online in the next few weeks. The mill shut down because of the cost and capability of getting rid of chips, according to Mack Winfrey. …At a time when Georgia’s timber industry is fighting to hold on, Washington is getting back something it lost a quarter-century ago: jobs, a market and a little more hope.
FLORIDA — On the heels of Escambia County adopting an ordinance to establish an Economic Development Ad Valorem Tax Exemption (EDATE) for West Fraser, the sawmill company announced a $70.25 million expansion, creating 30 new jobs. The board voted to approve the ordinance, which will give the Canada-based lumber company a 70% ad valorem tax exemption for a period of five years. Shortly after the vote, FloridaWest Economic Development Alliance announced that West Fraser has invested $70,250,000 in capital expenditures to expand its existing sawmill operation in McDavid. …The project is expected to generate substantial economic activity across Escambia County, supporting local suppliers, contractors and service providers. …Over the next five years, the estimate of the taxable value lost to the county is $70,252,000 improvements to real property, and $3,400,000 to tangible personal property.
LOUISIANA — Davis Timber Company, Inc. announced it will invest $1.9 million to expand its Beauregard Parish operations with new production capabilities that will enhance efficiency and strengthen Louisiana’s timber industry. The company is expected to create 12 direct new jobs while retaining 11 current positions. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the project will result in an additional nine indirect new jobs, for a total of 21 potential new job opportunities in the Southwest Region. …Davis Timber Company’s expansion will take place at its production facility within the Beauregard Regional Airport Industrial Complex in DeRidder, where the company produces poles and pilings used in utility and infrastructure applications. The project will add new processing capabilities to the existing operation, improving efficiency and enhancing product readiness for market.
New York’s Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (PRRIA) has not reached the finish line. The state legislature adjourned without voting on
Mass timber is frequently praised for its aesthetic appeal and sustainability benefits. However, what often goes unrecognized are the construction phase advantages it brings to a project—advantages that directly impact schedule certainty, jobsite safety and overall delivery predictability. Beyond appearance and environmental performance, mass timber fundamentally changes how buildings are built. For owners and developers focused on speed to market and reduced risk, these operational benefits deserve just as much attention as design and carbon metrics. Mass timber construction shifts critical decision-making earlier in the project lifecycle. Structural elements such as cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels and glulam beams are fabricated off-site and arrive ready to install. There is no waiting on cure times, no extended periods of formwork or shoring, and fewer weather-related delays during structural erection.
More efficient use of lumber byproducts leads to more sustainable forest management. That’s why Michigan Technological University researchers are developing a biomaterial lighter than steel and just as strong, made from leftover wood waste, that could revolutionize the lumber industry. …Xinfeng Xie, associate professor of forest biomaterials, and his team have partnered with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Waste Upcycling for Defense (WUD) program to turn scrap wood into a strong, sustainable building material. …Led by Xie, students began by using a group of wood-decay fungi, also known as xylophagous fungi, to break down lignin, the tough, rigid structural polymer in plant cell walls. This biological approach leaves behind cellulose nanofibers that are stronger than steel, and its only byproducts are carbon dioxide and water. …The project also provides a physical product that has a positive impact on the future of their industry.
In fall, hoards of winter ticks latch on to New Hampshire’s moose — sometimes upward of 50,000 per adult animal. Over the course of the winter, the ticks drink their fill of blood, weakening adult moose and sometimes killing calves. …a team of New Hampshire researchers has a new hypothesis: Could the way forests are logged make moose more or less likely to encounter parasites? …Winter ticks are the driving force behind years of decline in Northeastern moose populations. …In recent decades, parasitism of moose by winter ticks has boomed… major driver was a boom in the local moose population… The sheer abundance of hosts helped tick populations in the region reach the high levels they remain at today. …One option is raising hunting quotas to reduce the number of moose… Another line of attack is the use of pesticides. …But there’s another idea … that has not been extensively studied: managing their habitat.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – An email dropped into the US Department of Agriculture staffer’s inbox this spring. The Minnesota-based worker was about find out where she would be asked to relocate with her family. …The federal government employee had been hired to work remotely. However, her entire team was now being told to move to a new city. …The USDA, the massive federal department covering agriculture policy to anti-poverty food programs to the forest service, is consolidating offices across agencies, moving many workers out DC into select hubs. In Minnesota, USDA lost 21% of its 1,800 employees between fiscal year 2025 and 2026, coinciding with the start of President Donald Trump’s second term. It was the hardest hit of the federal agencies operating in the state. …The latest move also is different than conservation program cuts announced this spring or the USDA-run U.S. Forest Service announcing closure of research sites, including two in northern Minnesota.
NAPLES, Maine — The New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF) is giving out grants to landowners to help preserve some of Maine’s oldest trees. The organization got $4.3 million from the U.S. Forest Service in 2024 to pay loggers to put off cutting late-successional and old-growth forests, which are typically over 100 years old. The first grant was awarded to Chaplin Logging Inc. in Naples to conserve 23 acres of late-successional forest and improve other parts of their land. This type of forest is rare for southern Maine. The one on the Chaplins’ property has been mostly untouched for likely more than a hundred years. According to Brian Milakovsky, senior forester of NEFF, these trees provide a unique habitat for many important species and they’re good for the atmosphere. …Since these trees are being taken out of production, part of the grant is going toward timber stand improvement, removing undesirable trees in landowners’ other, younger forests.
The Trump administration is drastically cutting the budget, and reorganizing the U.S. Forest Service, moving its headquarters and research facilities to western states. In Pennsylvania, four research sites are on the chopping block. As forest ecologist Richard Bowden walks through an old growth section of the Allegheny National Forest, he points toward the ground. It’s barren of young trees. “There’s nothing,” said Bowden, a professor of environmental science and sustainability at nearby Allegheny College. “And that’s because of deer.” Deer overpopulated this area, called Heart’s Content, and much of the Allegheny Plateau, for decades; they eat whatever vegetation they can reach. …While the ideas behind this deer management demonstration might seem simple, it’s taken decades of research to understand the problem, and do the work to actually keep the deer population in balance with the forest. 
With wildfires already burning and drought persisting across much of the US, fire experts are bracing for what could be an extreme fire season. The U.S. Forest Service is going into it having done far less work than in recent years to manage the dry, flammable vegetation that can fuel catastrophic fires. In 2025, the Forest Service reduced vegetation on almost 1.5 million fewer acres than in 2024, according to an analysis of the agency’s data by NPR and firefighting experts. …The Forest Service said in a statement that the drop in prevention work is mostly due to staff being occupied with firefighting and because environmental conditions were not right for doing prescribed burns in the Southeast. The agency lost 16% of its workforce as of last summer, with 5,860 personnel leaving in the first six months of 2025 as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the size of government. 
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is planting nearly 2 million tree seedlings on DNR-managed forest land across the state this spring. Each year, DNR foresters coordinate tree plantings in state forests, wildlife management areas, state parks, and other DNR-managed lands. This spring, 14 species will be planted on more than 3,000 acres throughout the state, including several varieties of pine, spruce and oak, as well as yellow birch, sugar maple, black walnut and tamarack. These reforestation efforts are led by the DNR’s Silviculture Program. Silviculture is the art and science of growing and tending forests to serve a variety of goals, including clean air and water, recreation opportunities, healthy wildlife habitat, biodiversity and timber productivity. Foresters consider current characteristics, climate resilience and future goals for each site to create a plan for planting and ongoing care.
A bill aimed at making Louisiana more enticing to the wood pellet industry has sailed through the state Legislature. House Bill 670 won unanimous approval in the Louisiana House and Senate and was granted final passage on Wednesday (May 27). It would ease regulations for pellet manufacturers while directing state support toward workforce development, financial incentives and infrastructure improvements designed to meet the industry’s needs. The industry has come under fire for repeatedly breaking air pollution rules in Louisiana and Mississippi and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom, where most of the pellets are burned to produce energy marketed as “sustainable biomass.” The bill’s supporters admitted they knew little about the industry but backed the measure in hopes of reviving the state’s struggling logging sector. …“This bill uses taxpayer money to support a foreign industry and makes it easier for them to pollute Louisianians’ air and water,” said the Dogwood Alliance. 
The Louisiana House of Representatives on May 13 voted unanimously to approve a bill that aims to benefit the state’s wood pellet manufacturing industry. Also on May 13, the bill reported favorably out of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and International Affairs. The legislation now awaits action from the Louisiana Senate. The bill, HB 670, was introduced in late February by state Rep. Charles Owen and amended twice as it moved through House committees. It aims to benefit the state’s wood pellet manufacturing industry by streamlining permitting, developing a skilled workforce and facilitating the efficient transportation and export of wood pellets. The bill, as amended, allows Louisiana Economic Development, a cabinet-level agency focused on business growth, to support the recruitment, retention, and expansion of wood pellet manufacturing facilities in this state within existing statutory authority and subject to the availability of funds. 
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama — A worker at a lumber mill in north Tuscaloosa County was killed in a workplace accident Wednesday night, investigators have confirmed. Captain Jack Kennedy, the commander of the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit, confirmed that they are investigating a workplace fatality at the W G Sullivan Lumber Co. on Highway 171 east of Samantha in the northern part of the county. Kennedy said the worker, whose identity the VCU is not publicly releasing, died in an accident involving machinery. He said the body will be sent to Montgomery, where the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for autopsy. At this time, the VCU does not believe there was a criminal element to the death, which is why they are not identifying the victim publicly.
MAINE — The fire and subsequent explosion at a Maine lumber mill that killed a firefighter and injured a dozen other people was accidental and originated at the base of a silo, authorities said Tuesday. …Rapid ignition of particulate material resulted in an explosion in the silo that caused it to lift from its concrete base and release large amounts of sawdust and other materials, the Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office said. The silo then toppled and the surrounding area became engulfed in fire, the office said. Investigators will return to the facility in the coming months to conduct a more detailed examination, the fire marshal’s office said. “Investigators also determined the facility’s fire suppression system, which was located near the top of the silo, did not activate because temperatures at that elevation did not reach the activation threshold after the fire originated at the base of the silo,” the office’s statement said.
MAINE — According to the Fire Marshal’s Office, multiple departments sustained damage to their fire trucks and equipment during the Searsmont incident, impacting departments that are already limited on resources. “Seeing the ploom of black smoke, it immediately puts a lump in your throat,” said Belmont Fire Chief Ron Harford, as he reflected on Friday’s fire and explosion at Robbins Lumber. In the aftermath of the Searsmont fire, the Belmont Fire Department is supporting injured firefighter Katherine Paige and navigating the loss of a critical tank truck. …”Searsmont’s going to be hugely affected because they’ve lost two of their immediate mutual aid town’s trucks, plus their tank truck,” said Harford. On top of that, Chief Harford says the department lost between $50 to $60 thousand worth of equipment that was on the truck. …”Mr. Cross [Fallen Firefighter Andrew Cross] is our biggest loss. He was a tremendous firefighter a tremendous person,” said Harford.
GEORGIA — Residents of a Port Wentworth neighborhood believe chemical dust from a nearby International Paper mill is causing health concerns and property damage. Many residents reported shared health symptoms, including sinus issues, burning eyes and coughing. Despite resident complaints and visible white powder on cars and homes, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division has not found the mill in violation of its permits. …The Savannah Morning News collected dust scraped off of one resident’s car about 700 feet from the mill and sent it to third-party lab Eurofins for testing. Eurofins stated that most of the sample was likely calcium carbonate, a white to tan odorless powder, a major component of lime mud. The International Paper mill generates lime mud, according to its operating permit. …The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) confirmed that the dust contained calcium, and narrowed down the likely culprit to the mill’s lime kiln.
OSCODA COUNTY, Mich. — Crews are working to contain a wildfire in Oscoda County after it prompted evacuations Monday. The wildfire is about 100 acres and primarily on national forest land around Camp Ten Road near Lost Sky Ranch. Residents living near Camp 10 Road were evacuated to a shelter Monday afternoon, but were able to return home several hours later. Monday night officials said two structures were destroyed and the fire was about 80 percent contained. …A Red Flag Warning is in effect for parts of Michigan due to critical fire weather, including high winds, low humidity and dry vegetation.
NAHUNTA, Ga. — Heavy rain slowed the progress of two sprawling southern Georgia wildfires over the weekend, allowing crews to make some progress in containing the blazes that have destroyed more than 100 homes. Although the rain helped the firefighting efforts, it wasn’t “nearly enough to put the fires out” and crews responded to 10 new blazes throughout the drought-stricken state Sunday, the Georgia Forestry Commission said Monday. …Georgia’s biggest blaze, the Pineland Road Fire, has scorched more than 50 square miles and at least 35 homes… about 35 miles north of Florida, which is also dealing with wildfires. The area has been full of highly combustible dead trees and other vegetation since Hurricane Helene carved a destructive path northward in September of 2024. About 60 miles to the northeast, the Highway 82 Fire has been burning since April 20. It has destroyed at least 87 homes and torched more than 35 square miles. It is only 6% contained.
Wildfires tearing through the south have forced hundreds of Georgia residents to flee in minutes, leaving them distraught about the homes and animals they left behind. The fires that spread this week during an extreme drought in Georgia and Florida have blanketed cities hundreds of miles away in smoke, leading to more air quality warnings on Thursday across the south-east. Driven by strong winds and low humidity, the two biggest fires in southern Georgia have spread rapidly over the past two days and destroyed more than 50 homes in rural areas. But the growing threat led to more evacuations and school closings on Wednesday. “I don’t know if I have a house standing or not,” said Denise Stephens, who was forced to evacuate because of the fast-moving Brantley county fire near Georgia’s coast. “I know what it’s taken from other people, but I don’t know what I have left standing.”
GEORGIA — Smoke has filled the air across parts of the Peach State this week as wildfires continue to burn out of control in southern Georgia, forcing evacuations and destroying homes. According to the Georgia Forestry Commission, crews responded to 34 new wildfires Wednesday that burned about 75 acres statewide. But officials say the biggest concern remains two large, active fires that have already scorched tens of thousands of acres. The Pineland Road Fire in Clinch County has grown to nearly 29,606 acres and is about 10% contained. In Brantley County, the Highway 82 Fire has burned more than 4,400 acres and is roughly 15% contained. Officials say dry conditions, high winds, and a lack of rain are making the fires harder to control. …The growing wildfire threat prompted Brian Kemp to declare a state of emergency, allowing more state and federal resources to assist, including expected support from FEMA.
